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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



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OTJTLIN^ES OF THE 



ZffEW THSOLOC^Y. 



oxjxLiiNES o:f^ the: 

BASKD OlST 

FACTS, SCIENCE, NATURE, REASON, 
INTUITION, REVELATION AND 
COMMON SENSE. 



33 



BY T. D. CURTIS, 

Author ok "Thk Nazarkne," "Cross akd Crown, 

" Resurgam," and other Poems. 



JUL 231889 ^ 




CHICAGO: ^..{^^ 

PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR 



1889 



C3 ^^ 



Copyrighted by the Author, T. D. Curtis, of 
Chicago, in the y-ear 1889. 



pre^-'^ce;. 



The New Theology is a gathering up of the 
fragments, antagonizing none of the Old Theolo- 
gies, while harmonizing the essential parts of all, 
by omitting excrescences and supplying deficien- 
cies. All others have failed because they are frag- 
mentary and narrow. They do not recognize the 
Female principle of Being and its true relation to 
the Male. They do not recognize the results of 
endless Progression, or th3 outcome of an infinite 
and eternal sexual union of tli2 primil principles 
Love and Wisdom, which generates tlie motive 
power of Being and causes evolution and all the 
innumerable manifestations of progressive exist- 
•ence. They do not explain the origin of the idea 
of a personal God, nor of the doctrine of emana- 
tion from Him, or the God-Pair. They do not ex 
plain whence the idea of a non-personal Being, 
pervading everything. None of them catch a 
glimpse of the conjugal pair unfolding and rising 
to Godliood, when their sphere becomes the parent 
•of universes, by natural development, thus com- 
pleting another of the cycles of Being, as we see 



in two infants growing into the adult estate and be- 
coming the parents of other infants. In place of 
the rule of Law and Order, rising into the rule of 
Equity and Love, they substitute the arbitrary rule 
of a monarch, full of partiality, favoritism and 
vindictiveness. The time has come for something 
more humane, consistent and rational, more pro- 
gressive, comprehensive and complete. This the 
New Theology supplies to the advanced mind. 
Mankind are sloughing off the Old Theologies 
and coming up higher. "We are at the turn of the 
tide, and the New Theology is a safe craft on 
w^hich to ride the spiritual waves, in the light of a 
new and better era, to a higher condition. 

The Authok. 



God. 



1. 

Of all that is incomprebensible 

The name— in English language known as God, 
The Force of which all forms and things are full— 
The Source of Being— otherwise were null 

All things that now exist— at whose great nod 
The Universes come to light— whose will 

Omnipotent rules with Discretion's rod 
Of Love and Mercy, Equity and Skill :— 
Thou art my theme— into my brain thy light instill ! 

2, 

Others have speculated on this tlieme ; 

Then why not I, who feel impelled to try 
My feeble power upon the waking dream 
Of all the ages? Though presumptuous seem 

My efforts, there can be no reason why 
The least may not divulge the thoughts that rise 

Within the soul so eager to descry, 
As wide it opes its ever-straining eyes, 
The visions that might daze the more profoundly 
wise. 

3. 

Throughout all animated nature we 

Behold the presence and the power of Sex ; 
From Man to lowest forms of Life we see 
All things are joined together sexually 



For Reproduction; simple or complex, 
'Tis Evolution's ever-acting law ; 

We trace through brutal matter the reflex 
Of this all-potent force, and view with awe 
The deep conclusions which from it we're forced 
to draw. 

4. 

Female and Male all things at last appear; 

Thus Sex thro'out all Nature's realms controls; 
From lowest upward to the highest sphere, * 
So far as mortal eye beholdeth here, 

Through Sex conjunction everything unfolds; 
As positive and negative, when met 

In union chemical, the union holds 
True to proportions which the law hath set 
For simples, and they thus new elements beget. 

5. 

Together these two forces act as one ; 

Without the one, the other were as nought ; 
They are the Heat and Light thrown from the sun 
Which warm and vivify the earth as run 

The planets in their courses; nor is ought 
Upon the face of earth they did not bring; 

Through these life-giving rays to us are brought 
All earthly blessings — Life and every thing 
That blooms and fructifies to which we fondly cling. 

6. 

Our sun, like every other sun we see, 

Is a reflex of its Great Prototype, 
The Spirit Sun, from which perpetually 
Is drawn all that is possible to be — 

That is, all primal principles, when ripe 
Are the conditions for them to descend 



Into this outer sphere, where Pan's rude pipe' 
Breaks forth in music, as the forces tend 
To consummate through Nature Being's aim and' 
end. 

7. 

The home of God, as it to me appears. 

Is the Great Spirit Sun, whence emanate 
All things beheld by scientists and seers — 
The births of countless myriads of years 

Wherein the sexual forces procreate 
The suns and universes, and the forms 

That naturally fill each vast estate. 
Preparing, through each sun that lights and warms, 
Abodes for future life's innumerable swarms. 

8. 

God is a highly conjugated Pair, 

Once lowly born and dwelling on some earth 
So far remote that no one may declare 
Or comprehend the stretch of time, or dare 

To picture them at the domestic hearth, 
Where first they felt the flame of love divine 

To which their dawning future gave the birth ; 
Then through their consciousness began to shine 
Their vast unfolding, as their lives should inter- 
twine. 

9. 

They too sprang from a God who had before 
Been born as they, and like to them did grow 

A Mutual Pair, unfolding Being's door 

For earthly suns and planets to outpour 

And then become with light and life aglow : 

As closer still their sexual union grew. 
Life and intelli2:ence unfolded more, 



Until the Pair we call our God, -with due 

And orderly succession, sprang to earthly view. 

10. 

They lived and died, as men and women now 

Are seen to live and die, in earthly sense; 
They entered spirit life, and then the vow 
Of love renewed was made, and on each brow 
The blazing star of faith shone most intense; 
They rose to higher spheres, and all aglow 

They moved in Love's own aura, issuing hence 
And forming round them in a glorious bow, 
Until a sun began its radiance to throw. 

11. 

The elements of Being evermore 

Joined in a closer union, as they must ; 

As they recede, they form a darksome shore 

Like what remained when earthly life was o'er 
And the God-Pair behind them left their dust; 

Upon this outer sphere, surrounding all, 
The only sphere where burneth selfish lust, 

The inner heat of Life began to fall 

And suns to burn and throw off earthly ball on 
ball. 

12. 

Thus came our universe with all its stars, 

Its suns and planets — all that these contain; 
Our earth rolls on among the planet-cars. 
Freighted with life and death, with peace and wars, 

With all the good and evil in its train; 
And we, the tiny mortals struggling here, 

Hoping and fearing, vexing heart and brain, 
Have much our weary, drooping souls to cheer — 
For what is mystery now will soon be plain and 
clear. 



13. 

Our destiny is that whick is our God's, 
Who has so many ages gone before ; 

The heights sublime whence he now smiling nods 

One day we all ^hall reach, though great the odds 
Now stretching out from hence to. that bright 
shore ; 

For time and space are nothing; the same laws 
That governed him, unfolding evermore 

Those sprang from him, still working without 
pause, 

Must lift us to his plane, as end doth follow cause. 

14. 

Meantime, he will go on as we come up. 

Since our unfolding must depend on his ; 
For we must drink from out the self-same cup, 
And at the self-same table we must sup ; 

But he, gone on beyond to higher bliss, 
AVill be our leader still, above all strife; 

We from his realm, as now we do in this. 
Like branches of the tree with sap grown rife. 
Draw elements of fruit, which sprout new shoots 
of life. 

15. 

But, did our Heavenly Parents not progress. 
There would be no progression for us here ; 

All stagnant would become, and motionless. 

With utter silence and obliviousness 
As infinite as Being's boundless sphere; 

Progress for one involves progress for all, 
As long as Love its mate delights to cheer; 

As long as Love respond*. to Love's sweet call. 

No cataclysmal force can Being's tide forestall. 



10 

16. 

But does it seem too much'for mortal hope 

To dream of a career so far ^ll)0^e 
And still advancing as conditions ope 
The way of endless progress'? Wllo can cope 

AVith infinite progression, born of Love, 
And say where it shall end V Our destiny, 

With all eternity in wliich to rove, 
Must have unbounded possibility; 
Oh I glorious broadening ages that are yet to be! 

17. 

We only have a glimpse, and yet behold 
How vast the scene stretched out before our eyes ! 

We start from seeming nothingness of old; 

As we our dawning consciousness unfold, 

What strides we make! How vastly do we rise 

From knowing nought to science quick with sight 
To penetrate the earth and scan the skies, 

So eager is the soul in search of light, 

Full of its destiny to grasp the infinite! 

18. 

Who cannot see eternal progress must 
Have infinite results, and no one can 
E'er be so far advanced beyond the dust 
That, progress ended, he will stop and rust 

Mid Evolution's ever-onward plan? 
If dreams of a progressive life are not 

A vain delusion, then must rising man 
Become more than the mind conceives of what 
Befits a God — beyond all reacli of earthly thought. 

19. 

And who shall say it is m very strange 
That suns and systems should be born and reared 



11 

Amid the ceaseless and unfolding change 
Through which evolving souls are made to range 

In their progression, marvelous and weird, 
When mere conjunction of the sexes gives 

To human beings form and life endeared 
To parents and to other relatives — 
The highest type of Being here on earth that lives? 

20. 

•The emanations from the wedded Pair, 
When truly wed, forever conjugate; 
In closer union constantly they are 
Combining in the form of substance rare, 

And building of the aura they create 
A sphere around the couple joined as one. 

Which ever is extending as they mate 
In their unending journey here begun, 
Until their sphere is a prolific Spirit Sun. 

21. 

We are unable here to further trace 
Their grand career beyond this Spirit Sun; 

We have no evidence on which to base 

Their further progress, nor a clue to place 
Conjecture or belief upon; but none 

Can doubt the bliss and glory of the vast 
Unfolding of the future here begun ; 

It seems impossible for seers to cast 

Their vision farther on; it stops with God, at last. 

22. 

Nor can we farther backward go than this, 

Our earthly plane, which emanates as waste 
From the God-Pair, whiU every atom is 
Instinct with all that an analysis 



12 

Could find in highest forms of what is chaste; 
Though seeming void, chaotic, without trend. 

As water seeks its level in its haste 
To be at rest, so these rude atoms tend 
To reproduce the human form— their aim and end. 

23. 

But this is clear, wliat i» forever wcu. 
So far as actual substance is concerned; 

We need not look for any primal cause 

Of Being, nor of any of its laws; 
They were^ and are, and icill he, when is burned 

The last of all we now behold below— 

Will he when countless cycles have returned, 

And countless others shall return and go; 

All was, and «s, and will he — more we cannot know. 

24. 

Two Principles we recognize as first; 

These primal principles unite as one; 
All Being dual is; the sexual thirst 
Felt by all sentient beings here is nursed 

By virtue of these Principles, which run 
Each into each as naturally as 

The elements of water run, or sun 
Draws up the waters for the thirsty grass. 
Or streams to join the ocean ripple as they pass. 

25. 

The Swedish Seer went not astray when he 

Named these two Principles Wisdom and Love; 

Their junction formeth all that e'er can be, 

Spirit or substance, matter, all we see, 
Or feel, or think, or hope for from above ; 

Their union, growing cl^wtr hour by hour. 
Oped infinite conditimis when they clove 



13 

Unto each other with resistless power 
That moves all Being — each the other's living 
dower. 

26. 

To show that Being must be dual, let 

Us for a moment brief only suppose 
One man alone, one sentient being, set 
In utter nothingness, with nought to fret 
Or to disturb the silence and repose — 
He could not even know lie lived at all ! 

'Tis moving contact that to each one shows 
He has existence. If stark darkness fall, 
One cannot feel his hand without some motion 
small. 

27. 

Love sleeping all alone could never wake ; 

Wisdom in lone repose could give no light; 
The two brought into contact. Love w^ould quake 
With thrilling tremor that would warm and wake 

Wisdom to knowledge and a joyous sight 
Of his companion blushing to be seen; 

The mutual recognition would be quite 
A startling revelation in the sheen 
Of Light and Life gendered by touch the two 
between. 

28. 

Then think with what attractive force the two 
" Great Principles of Being would be drawn 
Together, with no other thing in view 
To militate against the union true 

Of every eager atom, which would yawn 
With the intenaest hunger to be wed 

To its twin atom, waiting in the d»wn 



14 

Of resurrection from the rayless dead, 
To thus be on its everlasting journey sped ! 

29. 

An illustration feeble this of how 
The Principles of Love and Wisdom blend 

In mutual accord, and thus endow 

The Pair with the capacity to grow 
Into a fonder union without end. 

Evolving from their conscious being all 
The forms and forces which forever send 

The tide of Life through all that soar or crawl. 

Wherever the conditions infinite may call. 

30. 

It matters not what we may choose to name 
The element which we now contemplate; 

It is the all-pervading vital flame 

And moulding force that from the union came 
Of Love and Wisdom, which forever mate; 

If we so will, we may suppose it Mind, 
And all things manifold and correlate 

So many thoughts projected and defined 

For use and contemplation of our human kind. 

31. 

So far as we can see, the moving force 

Comes through and issues from a Human Pair 
Who livedlong ages since, and iu the course 
Of Evolution, have become the source 

Of our vast universe, and to it are 
As parents to their children, by a law 

Of higher, broader scope, that may compare 
With procreation here, but which may draw 
From deeper spurce than even Gods themselves 
e'er saw. 



15 
32. 

Man is the aim and end of what exists ; 

As forces at his earthly birth prepare 
For him the needed food, and he subsists 
Within the womb as kindly Nature lists, 

So Love and Wisdom, present everywhere, 
Provide the suns and earths for his abode 

While, all unconscious, he is unaware 
Of his condition, or whence leads the road 
That he henceforth must tread, as others erst have 
trode. 

33. 

What Love suggests Wisdom is prone to do. 

As far as laws eternal will permit ; 
Pervading all and ever working to 
Whatever object seen they can pursue, 

They find the highest form and type most lit 
In Man and Woman, whom they ever aim 

To reproduce and then unfold to sit 
In higher realms, with Love and Light aflame, 
Whence they survey new fields and those through 
which they came. 

34. 

The emanations from the Parent Pair 
At first take forms of very low degree, 

According to conditions, to prepare 

The way for higher forms, which ever are 
Ascending toward the human, as we see ; 

The motion of the atom designates 
Condition and its due activity; 

Sub-union of the elements creates 

Varieties of forms and motions, and of states . 



16 

35. 

Though Being is but one, within its scope 

It takes on countless forms, ascending still 
To higher harmonies, where new fields ope 
To higher beauties and to brighter hope ; 
As music's octaves rise, progressive will 
Ascends from sphere to sphere, thro' endless range ; 
The higher motion makes each sphere to thrill 
With higher Life and glories new and strange, 
Perfection nearing through an everlasting change. 



36. 

" Is this the lot of all ?" some one may ask ; 

" If so, how can there be the room for each 
To thus unfold eternally and bask 
In glory e'er increasing, with the task 

Of guiding all in such a boundless reach?" 
Do my thoughts clash with yours, or yours with 
mine? 

Have you not room to think, and act, and teach? 
Because the world is full of thoughts that shine 
In other brains or firmaments, which them 
enshrine? 

37. 

In spirit, there is room enough to think ; 

The mental realm has no material bound ; 
To space there is no all-confining brink, 
Or wall of adamant against which clink 

The thoughts of men and useless fall to ground ; 
Yet thoughts are things substantial as the rock, 

But only tho'ts from higher source are crowned 
Supreme and lasting; these, as real, knock 
Against our weaker conscious being, shock on 
shock. 



17 

38. 

Well the psychologist knows how he can 

Create what seem material things unto 
The sensitive whom he controls, and plan 
Surroundings real to him as God's to Man ; 

His thoughts, more positive, come into view 
As actual objects to the subject's mind ; 

So in our little realm, by law as true 
As Life, our consciousness is all confined, 
Aid we behold God's thoughts in matter's form 
designed. 

39. 
We nothing add and nothing do we take 

By our unfolding, which but charges what, 
Already has existence, as we wake 
From our unconscious state and slowly shake- 

The sleep of ages from our eyes, our lot 
To find ourselves upon a higher plane 

Of active life, which we had heeded not, 
Because we had not risen yet, through pain, 
Unto the higher level it was ours to gain. 

40. 

Our life henceforth is one eternal Ncnfi, 

Based on the Past, with all it has achieved, 
And looking to the Future with a brow 
Beaming with keen anticipation's glow ; 

However in the past we may have grieved, ' 
Now comes a state where grief is all unknown; 

We rise above the brutal plane, relieved 
From its relentless rule; we gladly own 
Affection's sweeter sway, and ever cease to moan. 

41. 

As the conditions change, we rise to higher 
Enjoyment of the life which they unfold ; 



18 

We are not torn by false or vain desire, 
Nor tortured with the slow but cleansing fire 

That burns the dross and purifies the gold ; 
But calmly and serenely on we keep 

Our course to beauties and to joys untold ; 
No more our eyes are called upon to weep, 
No more we sink in dull and all-unconscious sleep. 

42. 

Our life, as then we find it, still unfolds 
Through the resistless tide or undertow 

Of an involuntary force, which holds 

Us in the true unerring course — controls 
The flow of voluntary, as below. 

Yet gives a sense of acting from free will ; 

But well we know the power to will must flow. 

With all our opportunities, from still 

Profounder prior source, whence we derive all 
skill. 

43. 

'T-was always so, and will be without end ; 

We cannot pierce eternity of Past 
To find beginning, nor the future rend 
To find the final goal to which we tend. 

But be content to know that, first and last. 
All was and will be as we find it now, 

'.Changed only in condition, Mhich is fast 
Revolving the kaleidoscope to show 
How multriorm the Being first on earth we know 

44. 

Mankind are Gods in embryo, and Gods 

Are wedded Pairs advanced to higher life; 
All are one substance, and the seeming odds 
Are- in conditions; he who patient plods 



19 

Through this dull sphere of ever-active strife, 
Where hope and doubt a balance keep with fears, 

Will one day join his true allotted wife, 
And they together rise, as blend their spheres, 
To God's estate and its unfolding lapse of years. 

45. 

All the surrounding vast array we meet, 

The sphere of God and present home of Man, 
Is part and parcel needed to complete 
The home that every conscious life must greet- 
As in the womb the infant but a span 
Has there prepared a world to meet its needs 

Till Nature has completed every plan 
For its reception, and where too she breeds 
All things required to aid the destiny that leads. 

46. 

Behold, oh ! Man, how glorious a thing 

It is to be ! Thou art the type supreme 
Of all that is ; and couldst thou only bring 
Thine eyes to see the grandeur which I sing, 

Thou wouldst not grovel in thy waking dream, 
But rise to higher, nobler, juster aims. 

And make the very vaults of Heaven gleam 
With smiles of angels, whose prolonged acclaims 
Would shake the earth, aglow with their ethereal 
flame. 

47. 

But now my task is done. I drop the pen 
And turn to earth, where bodily alfairs 
Call me to tussle with my fellow men 
For my small share of sustenance, and then 
Essay to help the weaker gather theirs; 



20 

"Would that I had the power to clearer make 

The meaning of my theme ; but all my prayers 
Are vain to help my cause, or even wake 
One echo in the mind that feels no thirst to slake 

48. 

Perhaps some day some abler hand will string 

The lyre to loftier, clearer, sweeter tones, 
And of Man's joyous destiny will sing, 
And o'er the earth its thrilling echoes fling. 

Waking responsive feeling in the zones, 
While listening from my spirit mansion I — 

Who long since in the ashes left my bones — 
Will smiling hear the notes that rise on high, 
And fill with rapturous music the o'ervaulting sky 



11 ' 



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